Reciprocating floor slat conveyors are employed in cargo container bodies mounted on trucks as well as in trailers pulled by trucks. These conveyors are employed to improve efficiency and reduce the cost of moving bulk cargo by reducing the turn around time.
Cargo moved in containers, with reciprocating floor slat conveyors, includes agriculture products for human consumption as well as products for livestock consumption. Some products such as fodder for livestock stick together and substantially clean the upper surfaces of floor slats as the products are unloaded. A sweep to clean the cargo container is not required with these products. Products such as grains for human and livestock consumption tend to leave a layer of grain on each floor slat. It can take several minutes to manually sweep all the grain from floor slats that may be fifty feet long. If the cargo container is being unloaded several times per day the few minutes it takes to manually sweep the floor each time could reduce the number of loads transported per day.
A cargo container transporting the same cargo load after load could elect to forgo sweeping the floor slats. That election would result in transporting some cargo when returning for another load. Loading the cargo container with some cargo still in the container will reduce the quantity of cargo that is moved per trip. Over a period of time it could take several extra trips to transport the amount of cargo that would have been transported if the container had been emptied each time cargo was discharged. There is also the extra cost of transporting some cargo when the cargo container should be empty.
Some bulk cargo should not be contaminated with other cargo. Contamination such as mixing white beans with black beans is merely undesirable. Mixing grain for humans or livestock with a fertilizer for example could result in sick people or sick livestock.
The maximum weight that a cargo container can carry in one trip depends on the legal gross weight restrictions and the empty weight of the vehicle transporting the cargo. Transporting companies will pay a premium for cargo containers that will transport two or three hundred pounds of additional cargo per trip without a premature equipment failure. Prior to purchasing cargo containers, the cost of transporting the specific cargo that is generally transported, the distance the cargo is moved and other factors will be considered. One of the sweep tarps may or may not be purchased depending on the results of the calculations.